Winter Sonata 1

Winter Sonata 1 Accepted for publication in International Communication Gazette (Accepted September, 2006) Hanryu, the Korean Wave, Sweeps East Asia: Winter Sonata, a South Korean Television Series, Grips Japan by Toru Hanaki Faculty of Policy Studies Nanzan University 27 Seirei-cho, Seto City, Aichi 489-0863 JAPAN Tel: +81-561-73-5549 E-mail: [email protected] Arvind Singhal, Min Wha Han, and Do Kyun Kim School of Communication Studies Ohio University Athens, OH 45701 USA Ketan Chitnis Manship School of Mass Communication Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA 70803 USA Winter Sonata 2 Winter Sonata 3 Abstract The present article analyzes the popularity of Winter Sonata (a South Korean television series) among Japanese audiences, especially among middle-aged women, and the impact of the accompanying hanryu phenomenon (the current fad for every aspect of South Korean popular culture) on Japanese society. Various types of primary and archival data were collected including in-depth qualitative interview surveys from 33 female Japanese viewers of Winter Sonata. The interpretive analysis of the data reveals the reasons for Winter Sonata’s popularity in Japan, and how this television drama and the hanryu phenomenon have influenced the Japanese perceptions of Korean residents living in Japan, South Koreans, and North Koreans. In light of the troubled historical relationship between Japan and Korea (given Japan had colonized the Korean peninsula for several decades), the impact of Winter Sonata and the hanryu phenomenon is especially noteworthy. Key words Hanryu (Korean wave), Winter Sonata, South Korea, television drama, Japanese audience, interpretive analysis, social influence Winter Sonata 4 Hanryu, the Korean Wave, Sweeps East Asia: Winter Sonata, a South Korean Television Series, Grips Japan Hanryu (literally “Korean wave”), referring to the current fad for all aspects of South Korean popular culture – movies, music, on-line games, hip-hop clothes, hairstyles, and cosmetics -- is sweeping across east Asia like a cultural tsunami (Dator & Seo, 2004; Endo & Matsumoto, 2004; Ji-eun, 2005). By early 2006, several countries – Japan, Taiwan, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and People’s Republic of China – were in hanryu’s grip (Onishi, 2005). Interestingly, this Korean “soft cultural power” has especially taken a hold in Japan, the country which annexed and colonized the Korean peninsula through “hard military power” some 95 years ago. Video rental shops and bookstores in large Japanese cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Kobe now have exclusive sections dedicated to South Korean films, television programs, magazines, and books (Tsukahara, 2004; Yoshida, 2004). Japanese department stores and clothing boutiques exclusively feature South Korean cosmetics, clothes, and jewelry. Korean language schools have proliferated in Japan, and the audience for NHK’s Korean-language instruction program has doubled in the past few years (Demick, 2005). Membership at Rakuen Korea, a matchmaking service for Japanese and Koreans with offices in Seoul and Tokyo have risen sharply (Wiseman, 2004). South Korean actors, rock stars, and models have acquired “star” status on the Japanese mass media. Korean restaurants in Japan have begun to attract a large number of customers. Travel to South Korea has become common (Endo & Matsumoto, 2004; “Travel agencies,” 2004). Japanese housewives now exchange recipes for kimchi, a popular Korean fermented pickle. This popular craze for all South Korean cultural products is called hanryu. Winter Sonata 5 The hanryu phenomenon began to tighten its grip in Japan around 2003, when the 20- hour, 20-episode South Korean television series Winter Sonata was broadcast in Japan. Since NHK, Japan’s national network television first broadcast Winter Sonata in 2003 on its satellite channel (it has subsequently been broadcast nationwide several times), it achieved immense popularity among Japanese audiences, and especially among Japanese middle-aged women (Endo & Matsumoto, 2004; Murakami, 2004; “War torn,” 2004) . Winter Sonata’s unprecedented popularity opened the floodgates for the Korean tsunami to wash ashore in Japan. The purpose of the present article is to analyze the popularity of Winter Sonata among Japanese audiences, especially among middle-aged women, and to investigate how the hanryu phenomenon has influenced the Japanese audiences’ perceptions of Korean residents in Japan, and of South and North Koreans. A description of Winter Sonata, including its storyline, is provided along with the historical context of political and people-to-people relations between Japan and Korea, especially since World War II. Our key research questions are posed, our method and data-collection procedures are described, the study’s research results are presented, and implications and conclusions are drawn. Background on Winter Sonata Winter Sonata, a South Korean television drama series, was produced by the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and broadcast in South Korea in 2002. Directed by Yoon Seok-ho, perhaps the most respected South Korean television drama producer-director, Winter Sonata was first broadcast in Japan in 2003 on the NHK satellite channel, NHK BS2, (Kin, 2004; Murakami, 2004; Victoria, 2005). Because NHK BS2 requires the viewers to purchase special devices and pay subscription fees, the number of viewers in the first run was limited. Nevertheless, the broadcast of Winter Sonata on NHK BS2 received much acclaim, leading to the re-run of the Winter Sonata 6 drama on the same satellite channel later in 2003. Goaded by surging audience demand, NHK broadcast Winter Sonata, from April to August, 2004, on the NHK general channel (with the widest nationwide reach) during the night-time slot – usually reserved for popular Hollywood programs (Victoria, 2005) . Further, the uncut version of Winter Sonata in Korean language with Japanese subtitles was broadcast in late December 2004 on the NHK BS2. Winter Sonata is a love story between a male character Jun-sang and a female character Yu-jin who fall in love (both for the first time) in high school (see Kim, 2006). However, Jun- sang has to leave for the U.S. to pursue higher education, and prior to his departure, he and Yu- jin arrange to meet at a specified location on New Year’s eve. Yu-jin keeps waiting but Jung- sang never appears. The next day, Yu-jin learns that Jun-sang was killed in a road accident when he was on his way to meet her. Yu-jin is devastated; she has lost her first love. Fifteen years later, Jun-sang reappears in front of Yu-jin but now his name is Min-hyung. Jun-sang did not recognize U-jin because he lost his memory in the road accident. Although Yu-jin believes that Jun-sang is dead, Min-hyung’s resemblance to Jun-sang and Yu-jin’s memory of her first love lead the two to fall in love with each other again. After facing many difficulties, in the last episode, Jun-sang and Yu-jin meet at the house that Jun-sang designed as an architect. By this time, Jun-sang is almost blind. He lost his sight in the second road accident, but the trauma somehow restored his lost memory. In the moving last scene, Jun-sang and Yu-jin recognize each other. Their first love is thus realized. The story of Winter Sonata was a complicated one; it was not a straightforward love story as the above description might seem to suggest. Similar to many other South Korean dramas, an intricate web of family relationships complicates the plot, and a sense of mystery sustains the audience attention. For instance, Jun-sang transferred to the high school where he meets Yu-jin Winter Sonata 7 with the primary intention to find his real father. At a certain moment, the drama encourages the audience to suspect that Jun-sang’s father and Yu-jin’s father might be the same person, and as a consequence, the two lovers might be siblings. As the drama unfolds, the intricate web of family ties is disentangled, resulting in a sense of mystery that dramatizes the main story of pure love between Jung-sang and Yu-jin. Winter Sonata became extremely popular among Japanese audiences, especially among Japanese middle-aged women. Those women were particularly attracted by Bae Yong-joon, a baby-faced South Korean actor in his early thirties, who played the main character (Jun-sang) in Winter Sonata. When Bae visited Tokyo in 2004, some 3,500 Japanese women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s gathered at Narita Airport to welcome him. A contingent of 350 riot police was called in to control the frenzied crowd. In the pushing and shoving that ensued to catch a glimpse of Bae, ten women had to be transported to hospitals in three ambulances for fractures, bruises, and sprains (Onishi, 2004; Victoria, 2005). Many of these Japanese middle-aged women traveled to South Korea to visit the location sites of Winter Sonata on packaged tours provided by major Japanese travel agencies, such as JTB and Kinki Nippon Tourist (Demick, 2004; Endo & Matsumoto, 2004; “Travel agencies,” 2004). The Seoul Plaza Hotel, where Bae stayed as part of the drama’s plot, once had a month- long waiting list for that particular suite. Posters, calendars, and books of Bae’s photographs retailed for up to US$150. Many of the Japanese middle-aged women downloaded pictures of Bae on their cell phone, checked his Japanese language website daily, and could recite with confidence his daily diet and exercise regimen (Wiseman, 2004). Hyundai Research Institute, an economic forecasting firm based in Seoul, estimated that Bae phenomenon produced a four billion dollar increase in business between South Korea and Japan (Demick, 2005). Winter Sonata 8 Troubled Historical Relations between Japan and Korea This massive popularity of Bea Yong-joon, Winter Sonata, and everything South Korean is astounding considering the historical relations between Japan and South Korea.

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